WELCOME

Welcome to the first edition of Dressage Training Journal. This journal will take you on a progressive learning journey from groundwork to ridden training helping you to create a more harmonious partnership with your horse.

Our journal was conceived as a way to share with riders and trainers a more holistic framework of dressage training. Our articles incorporate training techniques from all of the ‘toolkits’ which you will learn about in this first edition.

Our articles are aimed at all levels of riders and contain techniques that can help all kinds of horses from Shetland, to Cob through to Warmbloods. Our belief is that any non-compromised horse is capable of that beautiful shape of the dressage ideal.

In these PDF journals you will learn about essential groundwork and how this relates into riding. There will be articles on giving your horse more confidence to deal with stressful situations. We’ll work through the vast topic of rider-biomechanics which shows how the rider effects the horse and how the horse effects the rider. You will also learn about schooling and test riding at competitions so that you understand how to get the best marks possible for your horse. I remember a time when riding was my only way to train the horse. I would often get stuck in tricky situations, which were difficult to resolve. Now with all of the available toolkits I no longer find myself frustrated and can approach training with a greater range of solutions tailored to each different horse. Good groundwork produces a horse which is light to the aids of stop and go, which understands how to move its forehand and quarters and can also be trained to deal with difficult situations. Rider biomechanics gives a deep and logical understanding of how the rider effects the horse, and how the horse effects the rider. This level of understanding is very powerful because it is easy to make decisions about training, and diagnose issues with the horse & rider. Finally understanding how to school a horse through the levels and learning how to squeeze marks from a dressage test gives all kinds of horses and riders a chance to compete and perform well.

If you like the articles presented in this journal and would like access to additional training material then have a look at https://dressagetraining.tv/tv-membership where we have lots of training courses and access to support from our coaches through the forums and video feedback.

Peter Dove,
RWYM coach & author of Master Dressage